AIHW media releases

Korean War veterans are more likely to have significantly higher levels of smoking-related cancers than people of similar age in the general population, according to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) study released today by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Danna Vale.

Cancer Incidence Study 2003: Australian Veterans of the Korean War, conducted for the Australian Government, examined the incidence of cancer experienced by more than 15,000 Australian male veterans of the Korean War. A group of 884 veterans, who could not be confirmed as alive and residing in Australia, were separately included and excluded from the calculations to give a range of cancer incidence rates.

The study found that the incidence of head and neck cancers for Korean veterans between 1982 and 1999 was 76-90% higher than for the Australian community.